1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an automatic medicine packing machine for successively packing various medicines dose by dose, and more particularly, to an automatic medicine packing machine having a cleaning device for automatically cleaning dust generated in the packing machine while packing medicines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there have been developed and used automatic medicine packing machines that receive medicines from a plurality of cassettes containing various kinds of medicines such as tablets and capsules and then successively packing the medicines dose by dose.
FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view showing a conventional automatic medicine packing machine. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional automatic medicine packing machine includes a body 10, a plurality of cassettes 20 arranged in an upper portion of the body 10 to receive medicines of various sizes and shapes such as tablets and capsules, a hopper 30 arranged in a lower portion of the body 10 to collect medicines that are discharged from the cassettes 20 and fall, a printer 40 for printing various kinds of information onto a surface of a packing paper in which medicines are packed, and a packing device 50 for packing the medicines collected by the hopper 30 in the packing paper.
In the conventional automatic medicine packing machine so configured, several tens to hundreds of kinds of medicines are received in the cassettes 20, and while these medicines are discharged and dropped, fine powder is generated due to the collision between the falling medicines and a surface of the hopper 30, so that different medicine components are mixed and collected in the hopper 30 or on a discharge passage.
Thus, when medicines are packed, minor amounts of a medicine component that is not intended to mix with or be deposited on another medicine for a particular patient may be mixed or carried together, which may be harmful to the patient and cause a pharmaceutical accident. Thus, each section of the automatic medicine packing machine is required to be cleaned at regular intervals while each section is checked by the naked eye.
However, in order to clean the hopper 30 and the discharge passage of medicine and the like, parts such as the hopper 30 must be disassembled from the body 10 and cleaned, and then, the disassembled parts must be assembled to the body 10 again after the cleaning work. Conventional devices have components that are configured such that the foregoing requires complicated and/or time-consuming disassembly, making the cleaning and inspecting very cumbersome, time-consuming, and costly.
In particular, in a large pharmacy where an automatic medicine packing machine is used often, the packing machine must stop more frequently, and then parts must be disassembled and cleaned, which is very inconvenient and deteriorates a packing efficiency.
The cleaning work for conventional automatic medicine packing machines is very cumbersome, and should be periodically executed for preventing any pharmaceutical accidents. Accordingly, with conventional machines, it is demanded to extend the period for a cleaning work of the automatic medicine packing machine as long as possible for user's convenience.